Illumination compensator for curved surface lithography

a curved surface, lithography technology, applied in the direction of microlithography exposure apparatus, printers, instruments, etc., can solve the problems of incoherent illumination, lens cannot transmit higher-order frequencies, and the image quality of aerial images begins to suffer, so as to achieve effective coupling
US7106415B2Inactive Publication Date: 2006-09-12ANVIK CORP
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Patent Information

Authority / Receiving Office
US · United States
Patent Type
Patents(United States)
Current Assignee / Owner
ANVIK CORP
Publication Date
2006-09-12
Estimated Expiration
Not applicable · inactive patent

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Abstract

A zero power identical pair of oppositely-oriented meniscus lens elements mounted in the projection light path, serves as curved mask support while compensating for optical anomalies such as beam shift and beam deviations produced by other transparent supports for the curved mask. The zero-power meniscus lens pair, without affecting the transmission beam characteristics, lets the beam diffract as efficiently as does a regular planar mask, thus preserving the partial coherence effects and resolution concepts of projection lithography. This simple but novel optics device is not only expected to clear several barriers for curved mask projection lithography but also find place in other applications where collimated or converging light beams have to travel extra paths without significant aberration.
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Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] (Not Applicable)STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

[0002] (Not Applicable)REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX

[0003] (Not Applicable)BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0004] (1) Field of the Invention

[0005] This invention relates to projection lithography systems for imaging onto curved substrates, and more particularly relates to a large-area lithography system featuring a curved mask that is identical in size and shape to the curved substrate. An axially moving 1:1 projection lens achieves a constant optical path length for conjugate image points in order to maintain the substrate surface within the depth-of-focus, thereby providing an effective depth-of-focus much larger than the depth-of-focus of the projection optics itself. This invention is centered around a novel illumination compensator which we call ‘Zerogon’, that is part of an illumination system and protects the converging illumination beam from various image a...

Claims

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